In my talk I will highlight recent advances of my lab, investigating the
interrelation of spontaneous and sensory-evoked activity of neuronal
networks in rodent models, both under physiological and
pathophysiological conditions. For that, we implement all optical and
optomagnetic multi-modal imaging and manipulation approaches, such as
two and three photon Ca2+ imaging, optic-fiber-based Ca2+ recordings,
single cell optogenetics, and functional MRI. For many brain disorders, the
progression of pathological changes at the molecular and cellular level
poorly correlates with their phenotypic presentation. Neural networks can
undergo fundamental changes very early in neurodegenerative, neuroimmunological
as well as psychiatric disorders in a disease-transcending
manner, even in regions not yet affected by the underlying molecular and
cellular pathophysiology. These early changes are often maladaptive and
associated with hyperactive neurons, which marks the starting point for
activity-dependent neurodegeneration. At this early stage, short-term
application of mediators can rebalance the network to achieve a
physiological state and to counterbalance maladaptation early, preventing
or delaying activity-depending neurodegeneration.
